About the Museum of Brands

Located on 111-117 Lancaster Road, 2 minutes from Portobello Road, we show 150 years of brands, packaging and advertising through the permanent exhibition the ‘Time Tunnel’ created by consumer historian Robert Opie.

The Museum presents temporary exhibitions, talks, webinars and workshops, to create and debate ideas and examine the role of brands in history and the modern world. The Museum has a subtropical garden, and a Museum gift shop for visitors to enjoy. We host more than 200 events and conferences per year for brands such as Unilever, Facebook, Tesco and more.

Our learning programme for schools and universities attracts more than 20,000 students a year.

Our Mission

The Museum of Brands is a registered Charity no. 1093538

General Objective

The objectives of the charity are to educate the public on design and in particular on the subjects of advertising and packaging and their history by establishing and maintaining a museum to be open to the public for displaying exhibitions.

Purposes

To advance education in the subject areas relevant to the Museum
To increase access to learning experiences for wider audiences
To maintain and preserve the heritage represented by this Museum

Main Objectives

consumer history workshop, museum of brands

Advance the enjoyment and understanding of commercial art, design, social and consumer history to as wide an audience as possible
Offer high quality learning experiences to a range of existing and new audiences
Increase opportunities to access the collection through raised awareness
Enhance the breadth of understanding of the Museum through integration with creative industries
Develop community ties through learning and volunteering programmes
Preserve objects and specialist knowledge for future generations to experience

Annual Trustees’ Report and Accounts of the charity as submitted to Companies House and the Charity Commission.

Our History

The Museum’s current site in Lancaster Road, Notting Hill represents the third phase in the Museum’s evolution.

More than fifty years ago consumer historian Robert Opie began to unravel the fascinating story of how consumer products and promotion had evolved since Victorian times. By 1975 Robert had enough material to hold his own exhibition, The Pack Age, at the Victoria & Albert Museum. In 1984 he opened the first museum devoted to the history of packaging and advertising in Gloucester.

In the early 2000s, the collection needed a new home. With the help of global brand agency pi Global and founding sponsors Cadbury, Twinings, Vodafone, Diageo, Kellogg’s and McVities, the Museum became a charity in 2002 and opened in Notting Hill, London.

After ten successful years, the Museum had outgrown its building and in 2015 relocated to a larger site nearby, just around the corner from the world-famous Portobello Road Market.

The relocation project added new galleries, added new galleries, event spaces and garden. Support for the project has come from founders including Diageo, DS Smith, the Garfield Weston Foundation and the John Lyon’s Charity.